Hauppauge wound care center closing after lease not renewed

A wound care center in Hauppauge will close at the end of the month after its lease wasn't renewed, according to its operator.

Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine Center, which Long Island Community Hospital operates, will consolidate its Hauppauge services at its Patchogue office, a hospital executive said in a Jan. 24 letter to Smithtown Supervisor Ed Wehrheim.

Marc S. Adler, the hospital's senior vice president and hospital operations chief, also said in the letter that “patients can continue their care uninterrupted” at the Patchogue location.

Suffolk County property records list the Hauppauge-based Head Injury Association as the owner of the building where the wound care facility is located. 

Katherine Heaviside, an association spokeswoman, said Tuesday the association had offered the center a chance to renew the lease, but the center declined. She said going forward, the association will use the wound care center's space to expand its programs.

Both the Hauppauge and Patchogue centers offer hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which is breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized environment to promote quicker wound healing. The facilities also provide negative pressure wound therapy and biologic dressings to temporarily close open wounds.

Staff at the Hauppauge center are working with patients to transition their care and transfer their medical records, Adler also wrote in the letter.

Long Island Community Hospital officials referred a request for comment to NYU Langone Health, an affiliate.

Long Island Community Hospital still is a separate corporation, but a full merger is expected in 2025, according to Rosemary Gomez, an NYU Langone Health spokeswoman.

   She said the Hauppauge clinic serves approximately 150 patients and has 13 staff members, three who will transfer to Patchogue and 10 who were offered jobs at Long Island Community Hospital or other NYU Langone Health locations.

The Hauppauge facility's closure will follow the end of a program at another Town of Smithtown medical facility earlier this month.

St. Catherine of Siena Hospital in Smithtown closed its maternity services program on Feb. 1, according to a hospital spokeswoman. Upon previously announcing plans to end the program, hospital officials cited problems retaining and recruiting obstetricians and gynecologists.